Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Photos from Blooding by the Code

The Final Table Nick Miller (with the hand in front of his face), Martin "Marty" Collins (in blue), Martin Hall (on the edge and obscured by a head), Michael Tomkins (in the grey shirt) and Claudio Falcao (with the handful of nuts)
Our finalists were:
Michael Tomkins
Martin Hall
Nick Miller (Prince of Inner Sydney)

Both Martin "Marty" Collins and Claudio avoided the camera... but I plan to add them at a later date...

The Bruce Cup 2011

In memory of Matt Barnett from the Blacktown Playgroup in the early days, who died of cancer. Because of the (in)famy of some of his decks, he was immortalised on the Vampire Lord Ashton.

On June 25th, we're going to hold the Annual Bruce Cup. Everyone is welcome to turn up, and we recommend you bring your whackiest trick deck to the game. Entry is by donation and the proceeds from the tournament will go to the Cancer Council of Australia.



Sunday, April 17, 2011

Blooding by the Code - Qualifier for the Australian Continental Championship

There were 12 players who made it to the event, and about 4 players who wanted to make it but were sidelined by life. It was good to have a number of the Chippendale Boys out west to play such as Claudio, Nick, Michael Tomkins and Leon.

I was impressed by the relatively low turnout of traditional qualifying sleaze decks (there were 3 S&B decks and 1 Dominate Weenie out of the 12). We saw some more amusing decks such as Michael Bailey's "It's a Wizard 'Arry" featuring a large number of Mage Allies and Erichtho, an Anarch Secession-Chameleon deck and an !Toreador Anarch Swarm-Bleeder.

Quotable Quotes (unattributed at the request of a few of the makers of the quotes...)

"That thing bleeds more than Michael J Fox masturbating with a cheese-grater" (about the Weenie-Dominate deck)
"What?! I only bled him twice" (the Ashheap contained Govern the Unaligned + 2x Conditioning)
"[To player 1] What's he doing to you?! Govern down?... [To player 1's predator] Not to diss your game or anything..."
"I hate you with every fibre of my being... I know its a lot of fibres"


After two rounds, the standings before the final were:

Name
GW VPs TPs Ranking
Nick Miller 1 5 114 1
Martin Hall 1 5 108 2
Michael Tomkins 1 3.5 96 3
Martin Collins 1 3 88 4
Claudio Falcao 0 3.5 114 5
Todd Hassmann 0 1 66 6
Paul Azzapardi 0 1 66 6
Will Allison 0 0.5 54 8
James Bonham 0 0 46 9
Leon Tranter 0 0 40 10
Brendan Healy 0 0 36 11
Mike Bailey 0 0 36 11

With that, Nick, Martin, Michael T, Marty Collins and Claudio made it to the finals. The seating of the finals was:

Martin Hall > Michael Tomkins > Claudio Falcao > Nick Miller > Martin Collins

Martin Hall: Malk 94
Michael Tomkins: "All your dudes belong to me" Anarch Secession + Chameleon + Banishment
Claudio Falcao: A !Tre Wall (Bowl, Sniper Rifle, Eagle Sights... you know the type)
Nick Miller: A vote-wall featuring Orlando Oriundus
Martin Collins: No Secrets from the Osebo ("No Secrets from Cesewayo"-style deck)

Michael Tomkins was quickly pommeled by the Malk 94 deck of Martin Hall, it did not help that Jann Berger failed to complete an Anarch Secession without being blocked. That basically crippled Michael as he couldn't use Chameleon on his Predator and try to slow him down. Michael Tomkins was ousted fairly early while Claudio, Nick and Martin Collins tooled up. At this point the table started to stabilise itself with both Claudio and Martin Collins blocking their respective preys.
A few turns later, Martin Collins was able to drop a copy of Dragonbound while Martin Hall had at least two of his Malks in torpor from being blocked by Martin C and Claudio. Claudio blocked Nick's cross-table rescues and Martin Collins kept on knocking down Martin Hall's minions until Martin was ousted.
The final then came closer and closer to timing out as the three decks effectively stalemated themselves. Nick had 8 votes, but couldn't not successfully get an action off. Claudio had 5 pool, but Martin Collins wasn't able to apply enough forward pressure or enough combat to knock Claudio's minions into torpor. Claudio wasn't able to provide enough forward pressure to remove Nick's 12 pool. Martin Collins himself had around 25 pool from consistent bloating through a Hunting Ground and Vessel.
Claudio had the last turn of the final and the table timed out with the following standings:
Final Rank Name Prelim GWs Prelim VPs Final VPs TPs
1 Martin Collins 1 3 1.5 88
2 Michael Tomkins 1 3.5 0 96
2 Claudio Falcao 0 3.5 0.5 114
2 Nick Miller 1 5 0.5 114
2 Martin Hall 1 5 1 108
6 Todd Hassmann 0 1
66
6 Paul Azzapardi 0 1
66
8 Will Allison 0 0.5
54
9 James Bonham 0 0
46
10 Leon Tranter 0 0
40
11 Brendan Healy 0 0
36
11 Mike Bailey 0 0
36

Congratulations to Martin "Marty" Collins for winning the event. Those who have qualified for the Australian Continental Championships are:
Martin Collins, Michael Tomkins, Claudio Falcao, Nick Miller, Martin Hall, Todd Hassmann & Paul Azzopardi.

Deck Name : No Secrets from the Osebo
Author : Martin Collins
Description :
This was the winning deck for Blooding by the Code held on 16th April 2011 as created and played by Martin Collins.


Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 7.25
------------------------------------------------------------

2x Cesewayo 10 AUS CEL DOM POT THA ani magaji Osebo:4
2x Cesewayo Adv 10 AUS CEL DOM POT THA ani magaji Osebo:4
2x Mamadou Keita 7 CEL aus pot pre vic magaji Osebo:4
2x Homa 6 AUS CEL POT Osebo:4
1x Tatu Sawosa 8 AUS OBF POT ani cel Osebo:4
1x Kisha Bhimji 5 AUS cel obf pot magaji Osebo:3
1x Idrissa 4 CEL aus Osebo:4
1x Ismitta 4 aus cel pot Osebo:4


Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------

Action [12]
2x Anima Gathering
3x Enforcer
2x Heroic Might
1x Legend of the Leopard
4x No Secrets From the Magaji

Combat [34]
6x Acrobatics
6x Blur
4x Disarm
6x Flash
6x Psyche!
6x Sideslip

Equipment [2]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Palatial Estate

Event [1]
1x Dragonbound

Master [15]
1x Base Hunting Ground
2x Fame
2x Grooming the Protege
2x Guardian Angel
1x Mbare Market, Harare
1x Powerbase: Tshwane
2x Sudden Reversal
4x Vessel

Reaction [26]
4x Eagle's Sight
4x Enhanced Senses
6x Eyes of Argus
4x Quicken Sight
8x Telepathic Misdirection

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Monday Night VTES 11 April

Well, it seems like the Blacktown Playgroup is rebuilding itself and rescuing a few Methuselahs from Torpor.

Craig "CK" Kordiak, probably the closest thing we'd have to a real-life Malkavian is trying to turn up more (between horrid work starts and life).

Paul Azzopardi who has been dropping past bit by bit over the last few months.

Brendan (forgotten which surname, there used to be about 3 Brendans at the Blacktown Group) has come back and is playing some good-ol'-school solid VTES.

No quotable-quotes that can really be put online... but it's really good to see the Blacktown Group able to run 2 tables all night again.